Product Description

User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
AshRobins
a Intermediate

Date Reviewed: January 11, 2012

Strengths: everything.

Weaknesses: nothing

Bottom Line:

i first picked this camera up when i brought it, even though it has slight camera squeal, but this is acceptable due to its age, the camera to use itself is one of the best i have ever used! of course apart form my medium format.
i would prefer to use this camera above any digital down to the pure quality.

I have used this camera for just about anything you could imagine, from action shots to professional portraits with all stops between using both film and slides. I still use it after almost 30 years and it performs as well as it did the day I bought it. It has several of the capabilities of today's digitals. The only possible down side is that you must use 35mm film, plus the added expense to have the pictures developed.

It is what I consider to be an excellant camera rwgardless of price. I also purchased additional lenses, filters, special effects filters, remote flash equipment, etc. over the years to enable professional studio portraits.

A friend asked me to purchase a basic 35mm camera system (Under $500)for his 17 year old son (slightly mentally challenged) with no photogrphy experience. I came up with the folllowing based on my experiences with the A1. All items were purchased online and are in excellent or better condition. Canon A1 ($140); FD 28-85mm f4 ($159); FD 70-210 F4 ($79.00). Winder A ($21.00); and Speed Lite 177A ($25.00). Total cost of $424.00. A comparable used system in the Canon Auto Focus would have cost him in excess of $600.00. After giving him a short lesson on how to use the camera (mostly in program AE) he started taking pictures, and after taking a photography class at the local Junior College he started taking fairly good photographs.

Last week I told him that my son wanted a 35mm camera and that I would give him $500 for his system. His reply was not printable but in essesence he said no way. This young man is in love with his A1, and is saving for better lenses. When I asked him to rate it 1 to 5 he said a strong 10, and asked me to write a review for him, because he can not write very well.

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